Fanciful flight modeling aside, Trickstar did an admirable job with the individual aircraft renders, and when things blow up, they do so spectacularly. The lengthy and sometimes meandering campaign missions could use a rewrite, but Damage's diverting pyrotechnics and shallow learning curve should earn it solid points with the plug-and-play arcade crowd.

My expectations with Damage Inc. Pacific Squadron WWII were wide open, and as it turns out the game is a pretty decent one with plenty of options for view, control, and playing with or without friends.

Even with so few competitors, you will be able to find better games to quench your thirst for dogfights than this one. Its poor production values, lack of real challenge, or decent flight simulation are too much for it to really rise above the clouds.

The massive kill counts and lack of any allied AI once again leaves you as 'the one guy who can defeat an entire nation'. The war was won because of team work, not one single person. I realise that this can never truly be conveyed through a video game, but for that notion to be so crudely thrown to one side is very disappointing. Their lack of understanding extends to their apparent obliviousness to such facts as the US Air Force not even being in existence when you supposedly join up in the story, to the addition of missiles, that were barely on the drawing board by the end of the war. It seems that the developers have taken on a 'that'll do' approach to Damage Inc. Pacific Squadron WWII, well I can tell you now, that simply won't do.

Many of you will be aware of MadCatz, with their awesome hardware bringing gamers closer to the game. What you may not know is that they areMany of you will be aware of MadCatz, with their awesome hardware bringing gamers closer to the game. What you may not know is that they are branching into software and publishing, so, low and behold Damage Inc – Pacific Squadron WWII.

Damage Inc. is a fighter plane sim with the intention of bringing players a more realistic, dog fighting bunch of goodness. With 20 playable missions spanning various moments in war, starting in WWII Pearl Harbour, you are a rookie straight out of flight school progressing on your military voyage to become a decorated hero of the skies.

Its plain a huge amount of time and effort has gone in to bringing real life resemblances to the dozens of planes and upgrades at your disposal. There are great explosions, loop the loops and (kind of) time warps galore.

Unfortunately that’s where the good stuff stops. Visual elements in-game are far from that of being realistic, with graphics seeming grainy coupled with dis-proportioned landscapes & surroundings. I found myself enjoying the dogfights at first, but after a short while it felt I was loosing touch with the game and just slipped into auto pilot of shoot plane, bomb ship.

Join that with trying to keep your sight on a tiny red dot (that “helps you”) to take down enemy planes, it was a chore at most. Also sprinkle in a big portion of crashes, the game not my piloting skills, bugs and glitches with mission fails and completions occurring, when your not even able to see what is happening but apparently still in control of the aircraft.

With two controller set-ups at hand, arcade or simulation (which are unchangeable, unless you start over), trust me neither is stand out, so stick with arcade to save yourself any agony. Ok Ok, I could be shooting down the controls as there is a “special” joystick to tie in with the game, which I haven’t tested myself. But… I hear you say? Research has proven many found it easier with the joy-pad as the AV8R failed to navigate even the basics of the menu… I concur!

Now I know this is an early venture for Team MadCatz and lessons will have definitely been learnt along way. Lets just hope & pray, if we do see that any more titles released under their name, they don’t crash and burn like this one.

And finally without going into any more detail on how bad the game is, there really isn’t anything I can add. Maybe something other than if you love planes, want to look at them and see them in action. A flight museum or local/ national air show, will be more worthy of your £39.99.

My score is based on the original vision that was there initially but never really came to fruition in the final product. At best its a plug and play arcade sim to sit in the drawer or take up needed memory space.…Expand